Saturday, November 19, 2005

Good Stuff From Dennis Hastert

JMJ is one of the Friends of The Fu2rman, and his prolific and insightful posts are what helps this blog go 'round.

Hastert will give the Republican side of every thought, and finally, someone is smart enough to recognize the power of us Bloggers, and join us.

Good for us that he is a smart guy, and seemingly, on the side of us good guys.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) issued the following statement after House Democrats rejected H.R. 1606, the Online Freedom of Speech Act. The bill failed 225-182. Under the House suspension rules, it needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

“Today’s action marks a sad day for one of our nation’s most sacred rights: freedom of speech. The federal government seeks to control and regulate the Internet, but the last thing this Congress should be doing is trying to stifle public debate online. This bill would have kept the hands of the federal government off of Internet speech and protected the online debate that’s underway. Our world has evolved and grown more technologically savvy. Lawmakers need to adjust to these changes. Unfortunately, opponents of online speech have decided to punish our changing technological world. It’s especially unfortunate that Democratic Leader Pelosi voted no to free speech. This bill will come back under regular order, and I encourage all those who support free speech on the Internet to make their voices heard.”

And here's more...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) released the following statement in response to comments by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) regarding the War on Terror.

“I am saddened by the comments made today by Rep. Murtha. It is clear that as Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenant on armed services, Rep. Murtha and Democratic leaders have adopted a policy of cut and run. They would prefer that the United States surrender to the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans. To add insult to injury, this is done while the President is on foreign soil.

“Four years ago, America as we knew it changed. The terrorists attacked our people and attacked our nation. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives. Families were destroyed, and our children lost their sense of peace. On that day, we learned that we no longer had a choice. Failure to act – and act strongly – left our nation vulnerable to Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorist followers.

“But now, Rep. Murtha and other Democrats want us to retreat. They want us to wave the white flag of surrender to the terrorists of the world. It is unfortunate that this is all politics all the time. We need to have a strong consistent policy that will protect our men and women who are fighting to protect us overseas. We must not cower like European nations who are now fighting terrorists on their soil.

And still more, in his latest entry...

I hope everyone is well. It’s been a busy week and a long night. We stayed up and passed a bill that’s going to go a long way towards restraining spending and reducing the deficit. I’m proud that we got it done.

I had all these great prepared remarks for the debate but then I heard the Democratic Leader get up there and completely misrepresent the situation. Let me tell you, it was frustrating. I mean, the reason the economy is standing on its feet now is because of Republican policies. We were in a recession under President Clinton – the bubble was bursting. And then 9-11 came and just hit our economy hard. Republicans instituted pro-growth policies. Republicans did it. And look at the economy now – we are reducing the deficit. Homeownership is up. People have jobs. Unemployment is at like 5 percent right now.

So when the members on the other side of the aisle get up and misrepresent, it’s just wrong. And that gets me going.

They complained about the legislation we passed last night because they don’t want to do anything. But here’s the way I see it, the American people have trusted us to do the right thing. Americans are working too hard to have us up here playing with the money and writing blank checks.

This bill – the Deficit Reduction Act – puts us closer to a more efficient, smarter government. That’s what the people want.